Thankful
by Andrea O'Down
Summary: My entry for a contest on deviantART. April and Donnie decide to surprise the others with a special Thanksgiving dinner, but things go terribly wrong… The story obviously takes place before the first episode of the second season. In case you didn't notice. ;)


Donatello crouched down at the roof-edge and looked over to the opposite building. He watched one window especially, and moments later, it was opened and April O'Neil popped her head out, her beautiful red hair glowing in the light of the rising sun. She scanned her surroundings.

The mutant knew she was looking for him so he stood up to make it easier for her to catch sight of him. So when April turned her head in his direction she spotted him immediately. The teenage girl smiled and waved at him. Donnie waved back.

Then April disappeared inside her room again, and Donnie hunkered down. And with a smooth jump he landed on the opposite building's rooftop, climbed down to the open window and jumped inside.

"Come on, Donnie!" an eager looking April said the moment he stood up. "We got work to do."

"Of course!" Donnie answered and followed her to the kitchen.

"And it's okay for your father to spend Thanksgiving without you?" he asked.

"It is," April confirmed. "Although I'm feeling a bit bad that I have to lie to the rest of my family and tell them I'm being sick. But it's the only way to spend Thanksgiving with you guys. And I owe you so much, so that's okay, I guess."

"Don't feel bad," Donnie said and gently placed a hand on April's shoulder. "It's a white lie, and white lies don't really count as lies."

April smiled at him for a second, but when Donnie didn't make any attempts to take away his hand again, she frowned.

"Uhm, should we get started?" she asked cautiously.

"Of course!" Donnie immediately took away his hand and laughed insecurely while blushing slightly.

April went over to the fridge and took a lot of groceries out.

"And your brothers don't suspect anything?" she asked.

"They don't have the faintest idea," Donnie assured. "I told them you asked me over for the day to help you with some homework. And you know them. When it comes to homework they prefer to be as far away from me as possible."

April smiled at him.

"And Splinter?"

"You never know how much he knows," Donnie admitted. "He either has no idea, has a slight clue or knows everything." Donnie shrugged.

"I know what you mean." April nodded. "Well, then let's get started."

And with that they started working on their Thanksgiving dinner. It has been April's idea to surprise her friends with a homemade meal, but then she had figured out that she couldn't do it all by herself, and so she had asked Donnie for help.

And would Donnie ever miss a chance to spend time with April alone? Of course not! So he had managed to stay with April the whole day and prepare a nice dinner. During their preparations they had decided not to make the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but make some sort of special Thanksgiving-pizza instead which would suit his brothers better – at least, that was what he and April were hoping. After nearly a whole day of work, the pizza finally was in the oven, the cranberry jelly was ready, they had prepared some milkshakes, and it seemed like everything was ready.

With a sigh April slumped on the couch. Donnie had a seat next to her.

"Okay, let's tell the others," he said while pulling out his T-phone. He wrote a text message to his brothers and minutes later he got a reply. He read it and frowned.  
"What's wrong?" April asked.

"Nothing. It just seems that Mikey has lost his voice due to yelling too much during our fight last night. So he can't speak."

"Poor Mikey!" April looked concerned. "But he's still going to come, right?"

"Sure. Like Mikey would ever miss a free pizza," Donnie said with a smile.

"You have a point." April smiled back.

"Actually, I wonder why this hadn't happened to him earlier," Donnie continued. "Considering how often he shouts _Booyakasha!_ in a day."

"I just hope he'll get better soon."

"Me too," Donnie answered, but on the other hand he was a little bit relieved to not have to deal with Mikey's comments for one night.

* * *

Half an hour later his brothers arrived at the apartment, using the window of April's room as their entrance, just like Donnie had done before.

When they entered the kitchen where April and Donnie were waiting for them.

Donnie waved at them, and the teenage girl greeted them, but when her eyes set on Mikey she frowned.

The youngest turtle was wearing an orange muffler.

"Are you feeling better, Mikey?" she asked.

Mikey nodded viciously, then took a small notepad and a pencil from his belt and scribbled something down. After that he held the notepad so that April could see what he had written. The note said "Feeling AWESOME!" with a big grinning smiley next to it.

"Okay." April smiled at him. She then turned to Leo.

"Where's Master Splinter?" she asked.

"He said he wants to leave the celebrating to the young ones," he explained. "But I'm pretty sure he's just glad to have some peace and quiet for a change."

"Oh." April looked a bit disappointed when she heard that.

"Although it is way quieter in the lair already now that Mikey can't speak," Raph added with a broad grin.

Mikey glared at him, then scribbled something down again. And when he held up the notepad this time, it showed a very angry looking smiley-face with fangs.

Raph just looked at the angry pic for a minute, then grinned even broader. "Yes, so much quieter." And then he sighed happily.

The look on Mikey's face got even angrier as he watched Raph go over to the kitchen table and have a seat.

April placed a hand on Mikey's shoulder and smiled at him empathetically. Mikey's angry face turned into a smiling one again and he went over to the table as well and sat down next to Raph.

Meanwhile Donnie had taken out the pizza from the oven and placed it on the table.

"Okay, guys, April and I thought that you would prefer pizza over the traditional meal, so we made some special Thanksgiving-pizza with turkey ham and grill spices."  
"And we made some cranberry jelly you can eat with the pizza," April added. "And here are some milkshakes for you as well."

Mikey rubbed his hands as he saw the pizza and was about to grab a piece, but was stopped by April.

"But before we begin, I think we should say what we are thankful for," April said. "Leo, want to begin?"

"Uhm, okay," Leo said. "I'm thankful that we were able to stop the Kraang invasion."

Mikey scribbled something down on his notepad again and then held it up.

"I'm thankful for PIZZA!" the note said.

"I'm thankful we got the chance of kicking some butts nearly each and every night," Raph said.

April had planned to say something like how thankful she was for having them as her friends, but now she thought it might be better to say something that sounded less cheesy.

"I'm thankful the Kraang couldn't kidnap me – at least not for long," she said.

Donnie fumbled for words. He too had planned to say something like how thankful he was that they had met April, but now that seemed so dumb to him.

"I…I…," he stammered. "I'm thankful I can invent new weapons and crafts nearly every day."

"Good, now that we have all said what we are thankful for, let's eat!" April announced.

She didn't have to say that twice as Mikey nearly lunged at the pizza, grabbing a slice and shoving it into his mouth. But the moment he did that, his face turned bright red. He ran over to the kitchen sink, turned on the water and drank it in big gulps.

"What's wrong with him?" Raph asked before taking a bite from his slice of pizza as well. But his reaction was the same as Mikey's. His face turned red and he ran over to the kitchen sink, pushing Mikey away while shouting "Out of my way!"

April looked at the two.

"The pizza can't be that hot," she said. "I only seasoned it a bit."

"Wait, you seasoned it?!" Donnie asked. "I seasoned it too!"

They looked at each other for a moment. Then April took the tiniest bite from her slice of pizza, but even this tiniest bite made her face turn red, although she managed to not run over to the kitchen sink as well.

"Okay, you don't have to eat that, guys," she said as she stood up. "I'll go to the pizzeria around the corner. They should still be open. I'll get us a simple pepperoni pizza." And moments later she left the apartment.

Raph and Mikey took their seats again.

"You know what I'm really thankful for?" Raph said. "For not having to eat this pizza."

The moment he said that Donnie banged up, slamming his hands on the table board.

"Do you have the slightest idea how much work it was to make this pizza?"

"Calm down, Donnie," Leo said. "I'm pretty sure Raph knows how much effort you and April made to make this pizza."

"Yeah, calm down, Donnie," the red-clad turtle repeated. "But Leo's wrong. I don't know about the effort and I don't care. This whole Thanksgiving-thing wasn't about the meal anyway. It was about you spending some time with April, wasn't it? So, I guess you got what you wanted." Raph shrugged.

During this whole dialogue Mikey's eyes had grown wider and wider in shock, and he had written down "Stop!" on his notepad and tried to get Raph's attention by waving his arms, but his brother didn't seem to notice.

Donnie narrowed his eyes and glared at Raph. "So that's what you think?"

"Yeah, it's pretty obvious."

"Actually, it was all April's idea. She wanted to surprise you, but as she couldn't do it all alone she asked me for help. Sorry to disappoint you."

Raph raised an eyebrow. "Nah, that doesn't change anything. I bet you only agreed so you could spend the day with April."

"Actually, I thought it would be nice to treat my family to a good Thanksgiving-meal. SORRY FOR THAT!" Donnie shouted angrily.

"Well, and I'm sorry for having taste buds, although I'm pretty sure after having a taste of that pizza nearly half of them must be gone."

Donnie narrowed his eyes even more. He thought of how happy April had been the whole day working on their meal, how excited she had been, and then something clicked inside his brain.

The next thing he knew was Raph lying on the ground in front of him, looking at him, his eyes widened in shock. When he turned around he saw that the table had been pushed over, the pizza, broken plates and glasses were scattered all over the kitchen floor. Mikey and Leo were standing there, looking at him just as shocked as Raph.

The purple-clad turtle looked back at Raph again and mumbled, "I need some fresh air."

And with that he marched past Raph to April's room, climbed out of the window and up to the roof-top.

* * *

He was still standing there, staring into space, when he heard gentle footsteps from the staircase. He knew immediately who it was. His brothers wouldn't use the staircase. They would rather climb out of the window like he had done. Okay, it could be another human, too, but he knew it was April. He would recognize her footsteps anywhere.

The teenage girl opened the door, scanned the roof-top and when she caught sight of Donnie, she walked over to him. She knew he must have heard her.

"Hey, Donnie," she greeted him.

"Hey, April," the mutant answered without turning around, still showing his back to her. He didn't move, just kept staring into the night.

"Uhm, you okay?" April asked as she stopped next to him, watching him with a concerned look on her face.

Donnie sighed. "What did the others tell you?"

"Well, when I came back home with a big pepperoni pizza some time ago, they were cleaning up the kitchen. Mikey looked really sad, and Raph was either angry or felt guilty. You know with Raph you can't really tell the difference. "She laughed insecurely. "And Leo told me that Raph and Mikey got into a fight again, pushed over the kitchen table, and you got so furious about them not being Thankgsgiving-y that you said you needed some fresh air. He thought you might be up here and that you will come back in sooner or later, but we were waiting fifteen minutes, and then Mikey's stomach started to grumble so loud even I could hear it, so we decided we will start with the dinner, but after we finished you still weren't back. So I put your share of the pizza in the oven to keep it warm, and after another fifteen minutes, I thought that maybe I should get up here and look for you. Still angry?"

Donnie made a mental note to thank Leo for coming up with a believable story what had happened back there without compromising Donnie. White lies didn't really count as lies, right? Then he sighed.

"No, I'm not angry any longer," he said. "I just had hoped that whole Thanksgiving-thing would turn out better. I had hoped we could just spend a nice evening together, but this doesn't seem possible with my brothers without getting into a fight." He turned to look at April. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," April said with an empathetic smile. "We all know what your brothers are like, so them getting into a fight somehow is part of a nice evening." She paused for a moment and took his hand. "It's okay, Donnie."

The mutant looked for her for a few moments, their eyes locked, and then he gently squeezed her hand.

"You know what I'm really thankful for, April?" he asked silently. The teenage girl shook her head slightly. "I'm thankful for having met you."

There, he had said it. He hadn't said that he was thankful that they had met her, but that he, he alone was thankful for that.

April smiled at him and placed her other hand on their holding hands. "And I am thankful for having met you, Donnie."

Donnie smiled back at her. He had no idea how long they had been standing there, holding hands and looking into each other's eyes, when suddenly something hit Donnie on the forehead.

"Hey, what was that?" he asked as he rubbed his forehead and looked down to find a paper plane lying on the ground next to his feet. With an inner sigh he let go of April's hands and bent down. He unfolded the paper plane. It was a note in Mikey's handwriting telling him that he better got back to the apartment or otherwise he would eat Donnie's share of pizza. And next to this text Mikey had drawn a smiley-face sticking its tongue out.

Donnie scanned the roof-top and found Mikey crouching down on the roof-edge a few feet away from them. The youngest turtle thumbed his nose at Donnie and then climbed down to the open window.

"Don't you dare!" Donnie called out as he ran after Mikey. "That's my pizza!"

April had watched this whole scene, and when the two turtles had disappeared she walked over to the staircase, shaking her head in amusement.

"Yes, just another nice evening," she said smilingly. "But still, I'm really thankful for having met him." Suddenly she stood rooted to the spot as it hit her what she had just said.

"I…I mean _them_," she stammered, blushing slightly before continuing her path.


End file.
